Michael Cole is the Jim White of WWE, Daniel Bryan is finally free and more things learnt from WWE Raw

Plus, Martin Hines is getting a little giddy over the Ultimate Hall of Fame induction

The road to the Royal Rumble continued on this week’s episode of Raw, which spent the majority of its time making use of its rich past.

Old storylines were revisited, an international wrestling icon was announced as the first inductee for the 2014 Hall of Fame and the impending WWE Network was heavily pushed with much of its promotion focusing on the incredible archive.

All this, plus upsets, betrayals and no Bad News Barrett.

Here are five things we learnt from the show this week.

The WWE Network is going to be great

…When we over here in Britain finally get it of course. While the announcement of the network sent millions of wrestling fans all over the world into paroxysms of joy at the sheer amount of great content for such a low price, it’s only the US who will enjoy it immediately when it’s launched in February.

So for all the moisture, the excitement and the plans, references in this episode were a bit like watching Sky Sports News on transfer deadline day, with every club but your own signing up superstars while you’re forced to dig through the squalor of non-league football for a gem or too. I guess this makes Michael Cole the Jim White of WWE, with Jerry Lawler playing the usual pundit role. Any 'puppies' talk here though wouldn't see him sent to Al Jazeera.

Daniel Bryan is finally free!

The outpouring of groans at the Bryan/Wyatts storyline surpassed even normal internet ire levels, and quite rightly too in my opinion.

Taking Bryan and aligning him with Bray felt like Real Madrid turning to Cristiano Ronaldo on the eve of an El Classico against Barcelona and telling him to play in goal.

The next couple of months are pivotal in the progress of Bryan. It’s time to give him the Danny Dyer treatment we have alluded to in the past – give the people what they want, but not too much of it that it’s overkill.

The Ultimate Warrior is in the Hall of Fame

I was at last year’s Wrestlemania in New York/New Jersey, taking in both the main show, and the Hall of Fame ceremony at Madison Square Garden. As I sat and watched Sammartino, Foley, Backlund et al be inducted, I knew that I had chosen the right event to travel to, for this was an all-star line-up that could never be replicated.

To be completely honest, I’d give it all up, the actual show included just to be live to see the speech of the Ultimate Warrior, whose announcement into the Hall of Fame during this show had me pepped up and alive at 3am in the morning, and the buzz still hasn’t worn off.

I never had a childhood hero, but the Warrior would be very close to one. He was the first wrestler I was ever a fan of, the Wrestlemania 6 main event between him and Hogan burns long into my memory, and his aura and cartoon persona were just what I wanted to see during my early forays into watching wrestling.

His character these days is of course different, controversial, a maverick and is not necessarily one that fits comfortably into my world viewpoint, but for this to happen, for him and the company to make amends is bigger than Bret Hart coming back, or even Bruno. This transcends wrestling for me personally, and his speech will be one of the highlights of any wrestling year, let alone this one.

John Cena’s dad can go back to where he came from

Firstly, Randy Orton’s performance on this show was fantastic. He was intense, almost foaming at the mouth at times, and especially straight after his shock defeat to Kofi Kingston.

Orton’s look of shock and disgust after losing, followed by a meltdown which culminated in him decking John Cena’s dad was great, it’s a just a shame it had to involve John Cena’s dad.

Orton and Cena’s feuds over the years have been mixed to say the least, especially when Cena’s dad got involved - firstly being punted by Orton, and then being the punter.

If we can just have Orton losing match after match and getting angrier and angrier that would make for a far more interesting character and Royal Rumble match as a result.

The New Age Outlaws can stay though

During a six man tag team match with CM Punk against The Shield, the Outlaws turned on Punk, refusing a tag and walking to the back as Punk got beaten. This was a fantastically simple moment which opened up a potential Wrestlemania match between Punk and Triple H, all based on one little turn which nobody saw coming.

If this results in the Outlaws getting more screen time, I’m down with that.